


bigger than my body

by dearmrsawyer



Series: octolou [2]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Aquarist Niall, Aquarist slash Gullible Tourist Liam, Gen, Magic, Octopus Louis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-10-14 12:18:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17508485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearmrsawyer/pseuds/dearmrsawyer
Summary: The adventures of Octolou and Aquarist Niall continue, and this time they're supersized.





	bigger than my body

**Author's Note:**

  * For [1000_directions](https://archiveofourown.org/users/1000_directions/gifts).



> Happy Birthday Steph!!!!!!
> 
> We're back at it again with more Octolou!!!

Niall fumbles to get his coffee back into the cup holder as the light goes green, creeping forward before the traffic lined up behind him gets impatient.

The world is tinted through his sunnies this morning to protect against the particularly vicious glare of the sun. He’s already feeling claustrophobic in his polo shirt, eager to get into the aquarium aircon for which he’d dressed.

He makes one last final turn and is stopped short by a barricade blocking off the road. There are two men in bright yellow vests setting them up and another walking a ROAD CLOSED sign towards the corner he’d just come around. Niall cranes his head to see what the problem is; the road appears clear of anything that would warrant a closure.

Lifting his sunnies, the world brightens enough for him to detect faintly flashing lights at the other end of the street. Emergency vehicle lights.

Niall’s heart rate immediately picks up. He pulls over to the nearest curb in an untidy park he’d be unable to walk away from on any other day. The slap of the car door catches the attention of the yellow vests.

“No access this way!”

“I work there,” Niall says, walking so briskly he can’t make out the answer.

It becomes clear that the cluster of emergency vehicles is huddled at the access point to the aquarium’s public parking area. He can see a few of the people in the crowd are wearing white coats, suggesting no one’s allowed inside.

There’s somebody shouting over a megaphone. Niall quickens to a jog, passes the block of take out outlets and comes face to face with the aquarium. He stops.

The largest part of the aquarium, the exhibition centre, is an enormous building that faces the street. The labs and maintenance areas are tucked away in the back so as not to reveal how the sausage is made. Ordinarily the exhibition centre presents a welcoming face to visitors and passers-by who may be persuaded to visit when they’re next in the area.

Ordinarily the exhibition centre doesn’t have eight giant tentacles erupting from the windows.

Despite there being a great deal more activity now in view, everything goes remarkably quiet between Niall’s ears. He recognises those tentacles.

The woman holding the megaphone turns directly towards Niall and orders everyone to “move back please, do not approach the scene,” and only that shakes him out of his stupor.

Taking two very wobbly steps back, Niall turns to the person on his right. It’s Liam, wearing precisely the same expression Niall is sure decorates his own face.

“Did… did I definitely wake up this morning,” Niall says.

“I—,” Liam begins, and never finishes.

“Thought I did. Definitely remember wishing I was still asleep. Can that happen if you _are_ still asleep?”

Liam doesn’t confirm or deny whether they are indeed in the waking world.

One of the tentacles feels its way around a tree by the door and rips it free of the soil, waving it triumphantly.

There are an alarming number of barricades around the perimeter of the building as well, and the woman with the megaphone urges everyone away from the shower of leaves and dirt.

“How did he… this happen?” Niall asks no one in particular, since Liam still doesn’t seem capable of forming words. His face has an odd pallor to it that suggests he won’t find them again soon.

Another tentacle creeps down the side of the building, then inches along the ground until it finds the large, cartoonish welcoming statue of a fish, a dolphin and a squid all clustered together with wide toothy grins. The tentacle loops around the dolphin’s head and pulls. The steel pole at the base strains and bends back at a 45-degree angle.

Niall’s other colleagues are all scattered around the area, some trying to get information out of the yellow vests. Meanwhile, more trucks rumble down the street towards them, including a couple that look like they belong on a construction site.

“Uh,” Niall says.

A few yellow vests run over to the trucks, pointing at the drivers and then back towards the aquarium.

“Um,” Niall says.

The driver of a large crane-looking truck nods and revs his enormous engine, turning towards the exhibition centre.

The yellow vests clear a path through the crowd to allow the truck access. One of them passes quite close by Niall’s shoulder, and says something that includes the words “tear” and “roof,” and Niall jumps forward like lightning struck his heel.

“Excuse me,” he shouts, then again when he fails to catch anyone’s attention. A round, middle-aged woman with a halo of dark, tight curls turns back; her badge says ‘Frankie.’

“Get back, no one within the perimeter.” She flaps a hand towards the barricades.

“Are you planning to tear the roof off to get him out?” Niall asks.

“ _Back_ behind the perimeter, sir, for your own safety.”

“You don’t have to destroy the building, he’ll fit through the doors.”

“Please, sir—”

“An octopus can squeeze through almost anything, even if it doesn’t look it.”

“What are you, an octopus expert?” she scowls.

“Actually, yes.” He flashes his badge, which now reads _Niall Horan: octopus whisperer_ , courtesy of Liam.

Frankie doesn’t appear amused; she squints at him like he’s a puzzle box containing an answer she reluctantly needs.

“And how exactly are you gonna get him through the doors?”

“I’m his keeper.”

“You’re just gonna call him, are you? Whistle to him like he’s a dog?” There’s a twinkle of sceptical amusement in her eyes.

Niall nods, despite doubts that Louis would exhibit any form of obedience. Two of the tentacles are now curving over the gutter and Niall hears the groan of metal.

“Please, I can—he’ll… listen to me.” His voice weakens noticeably. Frankie nods him towards the direction of the exhibition centre. The twist of her lips suggests she’s expecting a show rather than a solution.

For the first time in his life, Niall approaches the aquarium with nerves twisting through him. The tentacles are gargantuan in close proximity. Each sucker looks bigger than his head. The one nearest to him curls and uncurls in a familiar manner Niall has often seen within the confines of a glass tank.

The crowd behind the barricades has gone quiet; Niall very much wishes he didn’t have an audience for this. Especially as he’s not entirely confident of his success.

He takes the first step, then the second, and the building casts a shadow over him. This close he can see a purple mass filling the entire space behind the glass doors. It’s soft, almost pulsing.

He swallows, and speaks.

“Louis?”

It’s not terribly loud, certainly not loud enough to be heard from inside. He clears his throat and tries again.

“Louis!”

This time he’s loud enough to be heard by most everyone on the street.  

“Louis, it’s Niall!”

He’s not sure what would have the best effect. He’s not even sure if Louis knows his name. He walks up to the door and pries it gently open. There’s not a lot of room, but he manages to slip his hand inside and rest it against what he believes to be Louis’ mantle. The skin ripples out from Niall’s hand and there’s a resounding groan as if the building itself is shifting on its foundation. Niall doubles back just in case it’s about to come down on his head, but he doesn’t get far before a colossal tentacle curls around his waist.

There are cries of panic from the crowd. Niall’s heart almost dislodges itself in alarm, but the tentacle doesn’t try to lift him off the ground. It merely twists up and down the length of his body, curious and exploratory — just as it usually would around Niall’s finger.

Niall raises a hand to stop the hurried steps he can hear approaching.

“Do you need assistance?” Frankie’s voice booms through the megaphone.

“It’s okay!” Niall shouts over his shoulder. The suckers pull at his clothes, untuck his shirt, pull the leg of his pants up to expose his ankle. The suction against his skin is exponentially more powerful than usual, but it’s not painful. Louis’ as gentle with him as always.

Niall runs his hands along Louis’ arm in response. It balloons and shrinks like a lung.

“It’s just me, buddy, yeah?”

The tentacle slides away, leaving Niall on unsteady feet for just a second. The building gives another almighty heave, and then the tentacles are retreating back inside the windows, and Niall retreats down the stetp.

The purple mass presses against the front doors, forcing them open. It resembles a balloon being forced through a too-small hole. Niall spins back to face the crowd, acutely aware that he didn’t have a plan beyond getting Louis outside.

One of the larger trucks is backing up through the gates with slow, rhythmic beeps. It rocks to a stop and water sloshes over the top.

The crowd takes a collective step back and Niall spins to see Louis has freed himself. He spreads out across the courtyard, two arms stretched as far as they’ll go, revelling in the freedom. The rest of his arms wriggle around until he is facing the street.

Niall very quickly becomes the only person within the barricades. Louis slinks smoothly towards him, tentacles pulling himself along the grass and onto the asphalt. Niall backs up into a ladder running up the side of the truck. Before he’s thought it through, he climbs to the top, and with equal relief and fear sees Louis’ tentacles slip up to join him.

In accordance with all such opportunities, Louis makes sure to force Niall into the least desired scenario. He is only finally enticed to enter the water once Niall is bodily submerged.

With a blanket wrapped around his soaking shoulders, Niall watches the yellow vests lock a seal over the top of the truck bed. It rolls out the gate and back up the street to applause from the surrounding crowd.

Liam, back at Niall’s side, still doesn’t appear to have any words.

***

Niall, along with all his colleagues, is on clean-up duty. The exhibition centre is a building-sized reflection of the general state of Louis’ tank.

Niall tasks himself with cleaning the remains of Louis’ display tank, which had evidently shattered when Louis outgrew it. There’s water and glass spread far and wide.

A familiar pair of shoes approach as he’s picking decorative motifs out of the glass.

“Don’t… get mad.”

Niall looks up to see Liam wringing his hands.

“What’ve I got to be mad about that you don’t?” he frowns.

“Um, can I get that thing back that I gave you yesterday?”

Niall searches the glass fragments for a small, green figurine Liam had kindly gifted the previous day. It’s a small totem pole shaped like three scarab beetles piled atop each other. Liam had brought it back from his trip to Egypt, where he spent two weeks filling all his shoes with sand and neglecting sunscreen. The tip of his nose is still quite pink when Niall hands the totem back to him.

“Decided you like it too much to gift?” Niall asks.

“I really didn’t think… I thought he was just treating me like a dumb tourist,” Liam says in quiet anguish.

“Who?”

“The gift shop man.”

“Gift shop?”

“I thought that’s what it was!” There’s a tragic tilt to Liam’s brow as Niall gets to his feet.

“Liam, what this got to d—”

“It _was_ rather tucked away, sort of happened upon it by accident when I got lost at the tombs. But he had all sorts of things that were sold in the other gift shops! I mean, they were quite a bit dirtier, looked like he’d been trying to sell them for years. But he was so nice, seemed like he deserved a sale.”

Niall can detect the direction of this tale. The memory of extracting an aquarium-sized octopus from said aquarium hours earlier conjures unexpected acceptance of where they’re going here.

“This thing made Louis big.”

“He said it would promote growth. Only I thought he meant, like, growing up healthy, y’know? I figured, Louis’ still got some growing to do after his injury. I thought it would be nice.”

Liam’s shoulders sag right along with his intentions.

“You bought an actual magical object from an Egyptian tomb.”

“Not _from_ a tomb, more… near a tomb?”

“Egyptian magic made my octopus big.”

Liam’s grimace would normally have Niall slapping his knee with laughter. For now, he’ll just take this moment to digest.

***

There is a row of slowly-rusting warehouses situated by the local docklands. Niall finds his way to number four with Liam directing from Google Maps. There’s a door to the rear, with no answer when they knock, and a large roller door facing the water, through which they hesitantly enter. It’s mostly full of shipping crates, but there’s a small office lit by lamplight off to the side. Inside is a squat balding man who waves them over when he spots them.

“You two the aquarists?”

“Yeah,” Niall nods. “Just come—to say our goodbyes.”

Niall’s supervisor, Michelle, had called him into her office the previous afternoon to inform him that Louis was now obviously too big to be housed by the aquarium. As their budget wouldn’t allow for the necessary modifications to accommodate his new size, they would have to release him back into the ocean.

At the easy cost of his dignity, he requested the chance to say goodbye. Michelle had only given an understanding nod and shared the address where Louis had been transported.

Liam had asked to come with, Niall assumed, largely out of guilt.

Now, Niall’s eyes seek out the crate that would likely have Louis. None of them seem quite big enough, but before he can ask, the site manager says, “Don’t think any goodbyes will be necessary.”

“What?”

“Could barely find the fella when we got in this morning. Drained the chamber and ev’rything, thought he must’ve got out.”

Niall swallows sickly. He shouldn’t be surprised Louis found a way out overnight. In fact it’s as much as he should’ve expected, even if he was twenty-five feet tall.

“Right,” he gulps, and Liam gently takes his elbow. “Well, thanks for your help yesterday. Appreciate it.”

“Hold up,” the site manager interrupts as they turn to leave. “Don’t you want ‘im?”

“Want—?”

“Seems he shrunk back down to normal size in the night.” The site manager gestures at a tank sitting on his desk, containing only water and one tennis ball-sized purple octopus.

“Louis!”

“Moved ‘im here so as not to lose sight of ‘im again.”

Niall rushes over to press his hands to the side of the tank. Louis drifts towards the glass.

“The effects must’ve worn off when he was away from the totem,” Liam beams.

Louis presses one tentacle to Niall’s finger through the glass. Niall smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and if you enjoyed it please share the [post](https://dearmrsawyer.tumblr.com/post/182215832241)!


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